Dogs and Chickens

Update on Muriel's kennel situation . . . relocating her to the side of the couch, where Chauncey's bed used to be, seems to have helped a bunch with her anxiety drooling. She is even kept fairly quietly in the kennel while we're watching television and prefer not to be licked or to break up growling battles between her and Chauncey. Chauncey's new bed is super fluffy and cozy, but he won't use it because it is in the "spot of shame" (maybe in the dogs' thoughts?) in the laundry room where the kennel was before. 

We have a short out-of-town getaway coming up, and were debating leaving Muri home for our neighbors to care for or putting her in the vet's boarding facility. She can't run free, because she still potties on the floor, but that much time in a kennel could be her max stress . . . so we decided to have her fixed when we leave and her recovery will be under the careful attention of our vet clinic staff. Hopefully, she won't dread the vet's office in the future. Seems like a good solution, albeit expensive for Caelan.

This is my artistic still life entitled, "Waiting for Dinner." Isn't it funny how she sits on the steps? Chauncey does this too, but his posterior is not quite so comfortably accommodated ;)

And speaking of Chauncey, I decided that the convenience of just opening the door and letting Muri run in and out would be a huge benefit in Chauncey's case as well. Currently, he whines to be let out, has to be chained up, whines to be let back in, has to be unchained, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat x 1 million. When he was a little puppy, we had an invisible fence that he would run through, yelping. We've never tried the one that came with our current house, figuring the same would happen. We tried to explain this to the fence company when we showed up to purchase the very expensive collar . . . three times Buck had to go back and say, "Turn it up please." Chauncey didn't even feel the first four levels they tried. He would walk right through the flags and look at us like, "Why is everyone looking at me? And why am I on the leash?" Otherwise, nada. 

Finally, this last time, Buck said crank it two levels (we cannot do this ourselves, we have to drive 40 minutes to have it done for us--eye roll). Caelan took Chauncey out to train and he felt it! It's sad to hear him yelp, but he will have so much more access to the yard if this works. It seems like his old guy pain avoidance is kicking in and he's getting the hang of avoiding the flags, stopping at the beep, etc. He's also kind of forgetful, so I'm not sure if this will register long term. We only have five days (after all the messing around with the zap level) to figure out if this is going to work for him or if we should get a refund. Caelan's training time today resulted in a very reluctant Chauncey nearly having to be dragged anywhere near the flag line, and when he was off leash, he just wanted to go back into the house--like a stubborn horse who wants his stable :) I'm sure hoping this plan works! I think everyone, including Chauncey, will be happier with easy indoor/outdoor access and the run of the entire yard.

A few weeks ago, Buck bought me two dozen really pretty roses. When they faded, I scattered their petals around on the table next to the vase. Then I got to thinking. "Hey Google, can chickens eat rose petals?" Google basically said, "Heck yeah! Not only can they, they SHOULD eat rose petals for the antioxidants, etc. etc." So I grabbed Graysen, my handy helper, and he tossed rose petals in the air (from an empty ice cream bucket) while I did a photo shoot for my chickens. They are SO fancy :)

(But overall they were pretty disappointed in the offerings of Graysen's bucket, lol!)